Week 12 Blog

I have often been in situations where miscommunication occurs. I feel that miscommunication happens often when I first meet people, because I am shy and sometimes people interpret my shyness as snobbery. Another example that used to happen often occurred between my sister and me. My sister will often make dry jokes that I have trouble distinguishing as being jokes. If her comments were not jokes, they could be offense and this is where our miscommunication lies. I would sometimes get offended when she intended her comment to be funny and it was funny once I examined it in a different light. My sister is good at keeping a straight face when she makes these jokes and so I was never able to read her body language or facial expressions to interpret the meaning she intending to send. These miscommunications offer occurred when I was younger and I had not developed all of my communication skills. Also, I was not as close to my sister when I was younger and so I did not know her as well. Now that we are close, I am able to recognize her joking facial expressions versus her angry or serious facial expressions. We would always immediately recognize when we interpreted things differently, because I would get upset and my sister would be confused. She would explain that she was joking and then we would realize that we miscommunicated the comment. We would try to talk about it so that it would not happen again. I think that the best way to communicate is to use language that is clear and appropriate to the situation.

Have you ever experienced miscommunication? How did it affect you and your relationship with that particular person? What techniques or methods did you use in order to overcome this miscommunication? Does it happen anymore with that particular person?

Week 11 Blog

I believe that people perceive themselves differently than others do. I have found that people tend to be much more critical about their own flaws or differences than they are about other peoples’ flaws. For example, two girls who weigh about the same about will think that they personally are fat, but the other similar girl is not. But in reality, the both weigh the same or wear the same pants size and the only thing that differs is how they perceive themselves. I think that putting effort in your presenting self can help improve your confidence level. Personally, I feel better about my presenting self, when I treat myself to a new cute top or take the time to tame my mane of hair. I really think that the way we perceive others and the world all comes down to our own attitude. If you are going to look for the negative parts of yourself, you are going to find them, just as you would find the positive parts of your perceived self if you look for them. Perception is a powerful tool that can affect a person’s entire world. Perception is also something that we can attempt to change or control in order to make ourselves happier within in our own skin. My perceived self is very self conscious about saying the wrong thing to new acquaintances and I used to constantly rehearse conversations in my head in order to insure that what I said could only have one perceived meaning. People will always perceive situations differently than us, because we are all different, and once you change your perception of the world, the world becomes what you want it to be.

Have you ever been in a situation where you said something that you meant one way, but someone else perceived it as meaning something completely different? How did it make you feel?

Week 10 Blog

Perceptions of the world around us happen continually. They happen so fast that it is hard to catch them and analyze them. Everyone has personal bias that influence their perceptions and it is a skill to be able to recognize these biases and challenge the perceptions you perceive based on the biases. I believe that all of the categories listed above are important aspects that influence a person’s perception. Every one perceives certain things about a person based on their physical appearance, for example, if a girl is wearing a short skirt, one might assume that she has low standards, or if a guy is tall, one might assume that he is an amazing basketball player. These assumptions could be correct or incorrect, but they were made off of a person’s physical appearance. Based on a person’s personal psychological state and cultural background, the person will perceive the world in different ways. For example, if someone is depressed, they will view the world as depressing and hopeless, but if someone is happy, they will view the world as enjoyable. A person from a different cultural background might perceive different meaning from a common symbol or gesture, like a nod of the head. All of these factors affect the way we perceive everything, because they are drilled into our heads from a very young age by the media and society (family, friends) in general. Some general stereotypes that affect our daily perceptions include all basketball players are tall, all people who grew up in a lower class neighborhood are stupid, all blondes are dumb, etc. It is import to be aware of your perceptions so you can analyze and understand them and see how the factors influence them.

Can you think of a situation where your perception was wrong? How will you prevent that situation from happening again?